To mark the recent international women’s day, Rwandan ride-hailing platform SafeMotos announced it had added the first female moto-drivers to its network, while it is working on a service that specifically matches female riders with female drivers. But will Uber or Taxify follow SafeMotos’ lead and develop a similar service? Not anytime soon, according to the companies, though both are dedicated to supporting female drivers within their networks and ensuring safety for passengers.

Tech: Latest News

African smartphone growth numbers are down in the fourth and final quarter of 2017, following on from positive growth in the third quarter. Africa’s smartphone market experienced a quarter-on-quarter decline of 6.4 percent during the period under review in the fourth quarter of 2017, according to the International Data Corporation. The decline in growth is represented by shipments of around 20.3 million units in the quarter.

Africa’s smartphone market experienced a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) decline of 6.4% during Q4 2017, according to the latest insights announced today by International Data Corporation (IDC). However, its biggest markets, Nigeria and South Africa grew substantially over the period. he global technology research and consulting firm’s Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker shows smartphone shipments were down to 2 0.3 million units for the quarter. Year on year (YoY), this represents an 18.0% decline.

There are lost cities all over the world. Some, like the remains of Mayan cities hidden beneath a thick canopy of rainforest in Mesoamerica, are found with the help of laser lights. Now the same technology which located those Mayan cities has been used to rediscover a southern African city that was occupied from the 15th century until about 200 years ago. This technology, called LiDAR, was used to “redraw” the remains of the city, along the lower western slopes of the Suikerbosrand hills.

Global music streaming service Spotify has officially launched its services in South Africa this week. The Swedish music streaming giant makes South Africa its first market on the African continent, but intends to expand into other parts of Africa. Streaming is now the dominant form of music consumption globally, and the high penetration of mobile in South Africa will make it accessible to South Africans from all walks of life.

Back in January, South African mobile operator MTN and Ericsson announced Africa’s first 5G technology and applications trial, which is part of a 5G demonstration starting in the first quarter of 2018. The 5G trial achieved a throughput of more than 20Gbps with less than 5ms latency, which is the highest achieved on a mobile network in Africa. MTN said it has tested a range of 5G use cases, and expects to see commercial deployment in the near future.

South African mobile security solutions company, Entersekt, has won the Best Mobile Security Technology award in the annual Banker Africa Southern Africa Banking Awards. Entersekt has won the mobile security technology award for the third consecutive year. The South African fintech company develops push-based authentication and app security technology to protect clients in numerous industries.

African millennials who were born from the early 1980s until around the turn of the new millennium are perceived as having changed the world’s understanding of Africa, bringing it from a ‘dark continent’ to ‘Africa rising’ through blogging and social media (#SomeoneTellCNN). They are often thought of as mobile, connected, and tech savvy, founders of tech startups that begin with the abbreviation ‘M’ – for mobile, with little care for politics, but is that a myth?

U.S.-based venture capital fund Village Capital has announced the full cohort of fintech startups from Africa that will take part in the Village Capital Fintech Africa 2018 program. Their venture development program will see the 12 early-stage African fintech startups, which are focused on improving financial health, work through a specific curriculum over a three-month period, in collaboration with PayPal. The startups have been chosen from Kenya, Uganda, and Nigeria.

Kenya has for years regarded blockchain technology and digital currencies with suspicion, comparing bitcoin to a “pyramid scheme,” and emphasizing that it had no legal footing. That wariness has been shared by the governments of Egypt, Nigeria, and Tanzania, and by Safaricom—35% of which is owned by the Kenyan government—which terminated bitcoin trading platforms like Kipochi from using their dominant mobile money service M-Pesa.But Kenya announced that the government is setting up a task force.

Founding Women, is a collection of first-hand accounts of these women who are defying the odds to build successful businesses in technology. Filled with practical advice and words of encouragement, this book speaks to any girl who has a dream but fears the odds might be stacked up too high against her. Founding Women is a publication of the Africa Technology Business Network,a social enterprise that works to promote sustainable development in Africa through technology innovation and enterprise.